Pendulum clock



July 14, 1970 H. A. KUHN 3,520,125

PENDULUM CLOCK Filed Jan. 22, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 fl /w: zyen me MA'July 14-, 1970 H. A. KUHN 3,520,125

PENDULUM CLOCK FiledJan. 22, 1969 2 Shegts-Shet 2 United States PatentU.S. Cl. 582 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A liquid power pendulumclock is disclosed, the clock comprising a source of liquid forsupplying motive power, a pivotally mounted beam member, time-indicatingmeans controlled by the beam member, and regulator means including apivotally mounted balance means rigidly mounted on the pendulum forcontrolling the beam memher. The balance means includes twochannel-shaped arms for receiving the liquid, each of the arms havingpocket means in communication with the channel means for temporarilyholding the liquid. In the extended position of the pendulum, the liquidis collected in one of the arms and discharged from the other wherebythe beam member is alternatively acted upon on each side by the liquidbeing discharged from the balance means. The oscillation of the pendulumthus affected causes a camcontrolled drive lever to turn a minute discand an hour wheel. A damper is provided so as to prevent the pendulumfrom swinging too far.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a pendulum clockhaving a regulating organ with means for diverting liquid, and a. beamalternately acted upon on each side by liquid for operating means forindicating the minutes. A pendulum clock of this kind has beendescribed, the liquid diverting means pivoting an operating member thatcooperates with two oppositely acting springs, which kept the pendulumin oscillation by alternately giving it oppositely directed impulses.The liquid diverting means also served to deliver liquid alternately tothe two arms of a beam. The oscillation of this beam was transmitted bypawls to the hands of the clock and to the winding mechanism of thestriking work.

The use of springs to oscillate the pendulum, particularly, but also theway in which the movement of the beam is transmitted to the hands andthe winding mechanism led to a construction that was as complicated asit was filled with friction-causing parts, so that it was impossible toattain a sufficient accuracy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The purpose of the invention is to produce apendulum clock of the general kind described in the first paragraph ofthe preceding section, but which is appreciably simpler in design, yet avery exact timepiece.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be described indetail, with reference to the figures of the accompanying drawings,where- FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of the balance, damper, and thependulum in its center position;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a part of the pendulum;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of the damper and thecentral part of the balance; :and

FIG. 4 is a schematic front view of the entire clock.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The pendulum 3, comprising thebob 1 and the rod 2, is screwed into a yoke-like member 4, which, bymeans of hardened pivots 5, is mounted free to swing on a support 6. Thefront end of the member 4 carries an upright support 7, to which isattached the beam 8, having the arms 10 and 11, of the balance 9, thatacts as the regulating organ together with the pendulum. Each arm 10 and11 consists of an angled, generally U-shaped channel that is closed atits outer end, but is provided with an outlet tube 12. Bend 13 in eacharm broadly comprises a pocket means for temporarily holding liquid. Theangle of the bend 13 in each arm is so chosen that when the pendulum 3is in its center position (shown in FIG. 1), the two arm outer portions10a and 11a incline somewhat upwards, whereas when the pendulum is atone end of its swing the arm outer portion of that arm which is lowerslopes somewhat downwards. The two arm inner portions 10b and 111) arealso angled with respect to each other, so that the beam 8 has ratherthe shape of a W; in other Words, the two arm inner portions 101; and11b slope downwards from the center of the beam; and the arm outerportions 10:: and 110, when the pendulum is in its center position,slope upwards.

The balance 9 incorporates a damping arrangement 14, the operation ofwhich will be described later. The arrangement comprises two transferreceptacles 15 having each an inner wall 15a. Each receptacle is somounted between the two side walls, at the inner end, of a respectivearm inner portion, 10b, 11b that the inner walls 15a of the receptaclesare spaced a certain distance from each other and from the beam middle.Each transfer receptacle 15 embodies an outlet channel 16 that extendssufiiciently far towards the opposite beam arm so that the liquid canflow from the receptacle into the U- shaped channel of the other arm.

An outlet 17 for liquid is located directly above the middle of the beam8. A thin stream of liquid, preferably water, falls down onto the beam.As with other pendulum clocks, the pendulum, at the start, must bepushed; and the drive arrangement, here the balance 9, only serves tokeep the pendulum oscillating. The dimensions of the parts are so chosenthat, when the pendulum 3 is in the position shown in FIG. 4, and theamplitude of the pendulum swing is normal, the stream of water fallsbetween the walls 15a of the two transfer receptacles and, correspondingto the position of the central apex of the beam 8, the water fiows downthe channel of the arm 11 and collects in the bend 13. The weight ofthis water exerts a counterclockwise torque on the pendulum 3, whichtorque acts as an impulse to keep the pendulum swinging.

As soon as the pendulum, now swinging to the right, has passed throughits center position, the water from the outlet 17 pours into the channelof the opposite arm 10, while the arm 11 empties through the outlet tube12. In this way, there is obtained a torque that swings the pendulum inthe other direction, and thus the latter is kept oscillating.

The upright support 7 carries a click 18 which cooperates with a drivewheel 19 that is arranged coaxially to the axis about which the pendulum3 swings. The wheel is provided near its periphery with thirty uniformlyspaced drive pins 20. The central part of the wheel consists of twoapproximately crescent-shaped cams 21, with an opening 22 therebetween,the function of which latter will be later explained.

If the period of the pendulum is two seconds, and if the drive wheel 19each period is advanced the spacing between two successive pins 20, thedrive wheel makes one complete turn every minute.

When the excursion of the pendulum begins to in crease beyond theallowed maximum, the damping a-rrangement comes into play, but otherwiseremains inoperative as long as the amplitude is not excessive: in otherwords, as long as the water falls between the two walls a. But as soonas the amplitude increases beyond that which is permissible, water poursinto one of the transfer receptacles 15, from where it pours down therespective outlet channel 16 and into the channel of the lower beam arm.Since this water is necessarily transferred to the opposite arm shortlybefore the pendulum changes its direction of swing, this water does nothave time to reach the outlet tube 12 before the pendulum starts toswing back. Consequently, this transferred water acts as a counterweightto the water collected in the bend of the other arm, and thereforereduces the torque acting to swing the pendulum. In this way, anyexcessive increase in the pendulum amplitude is prevented.

Cooperating with the cams 21 of the drive wheel 19 is the free end 26aof a drive lever 26, which latter is mounted on the arbor 23 of the hourwheel 24 and the minute disc 25, the latter acting as a cannon pinion. Astepping beam 27 is rigidly connected to the lever 26 and has two arms28 and 29, which, as those of the balance 9, define a W and have each abend 30 near their outer ends, in which water can collect. Two funnels31 and respective tubes 32 collect the water from the balance arms 10and 11 and alternately pour it into a collecting funnel 33, which poursthe water into the stepping beam 27. The arms 28 and 29 of the latter,as do those of the balance 9, serve to divert the water to the left orto the right, depending on the position of the drive lever 26. In theposition shown in FIG. 4, the water collects in the bend of the arm 28,while the lever 26, in its extreme left position, abuts against the leftone of the two stop pins 34; at the same time, a roller (not shown)which is formed by the free end 26a of the lever 26 is pressed againstone of the two cams 21. This relationship obtains until the wheel 19 isturned sufiicient- 1y so that the opening 22 is positioned opposite thisroller, or cam follower, whereupon the water collected in the bend 30 ofthe arm 28 causes the lever 26 to swing clockwise until it strikes theopposite stop pin 34, the cam follower moving through the opening 22.The arm 29 is now positioned beneath the funnel 33 so that, once theother arm 28 is emptied of its water, a counterclockwise torque acts onthe lever 26, which torque presses the cam follower against the oppositecam 21 untilas is the case every 30 seconds-the follower is free to movethrough the opening 22 and the drive lever 26 can swing back.

Pivotally connected to the lever 26 is an advancing pawl 35 whichcooperates with the pins 36 of the transparent cannon pinion having aminute hand 37. Sixty pins 36 are evenly distributed at an angularspacing of 6 near the periphery of the cannon pinion. Five pins 36a (orevery twelfth one) of these sixty pins are evenly spaced along a circlehaving a radius smaller than that along which are located the remainingpins. Since the lever 26 makes a move every seconds, the advancing pawlturns the cannon pinion through a distance equal to the spacing betweentwo successive pins 36, or 6, and thus the hand 37 indicates the minutesin the usual manner.

The hour wheel 24, shown in dash line in FIG. 4, is mounted coaxiallybehind the transparent cannon pinion 25 and has fixed to it a hand 38for showing the hours. The hour wheel is also provided with a circle ofsixty pins 39, the circle defined having the same radius as that definedby the pins 36a. The pawl 35 is constructed as a double pawl, of whichthe front arm 35a cooperates with the pins 36 and the rear arm 35b(shown in dash line in another pawl position) with the pins 39 of thehour wheel 24. The consequence of this construction is that every timeone of the pins 36a is moved to a position opposite the pawl 35, whichthen swings farther downwards, the pawl also engages one of the pins 39of the hour wheel 24, and thus turns the latter through a distance equalto the spacing between two successive pins 39. Since the hour wheel alsohas 60 pins spaced 6 apart and is advanced five times for every onecomplete revolution of the cannon pinion, the hour hand 38 is moved 30every hour to indicate the hours in the usual manner. The water pouredfrom the beam 27 can be collected in a reservoir and from there moved bya small pump to the outlet 17.

The construction of the invention eliminates nearly all frictionproducing parts and produces a clock of improved accuracy with simplerdesign.

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid powered pendulum clock comprising: a source of liquid forsupplying the motive power to said clock; a pivotally mounted beammember; time-indicating means controlled by said beam member; andregulator means including a pivotally mounted balance means rigidlymounted on said pendulum for controlling said beam member, said balancemeans including two channelshaped arms for receiving said liquid, eachof said arms having pocket means for temporarily holding said liquid,said pocket means being in communication with said channel means, sothat in the extended position of said pendulum, said liquid is collectedin one of said arms and discharged from the other whereby the beammember is alternatively acted upon on each side thereof by said liquidbeing discharged from said balance means.

2. A liquid powered pendulum clock as defined in claim 1, wherein saidpocket means is formed by a bend in each arm of such an angle at eachend thereof such that in each end position of said pendulum, said liquidis collected in one of said arms and discharged from the other.

3. The pendulum clock as defined in claim 2, including a damper forlimiting the maximum excursion of said pendulum, said damper comprisinga transfer receptacle in each said arms equally spaced from the middleof said balance means, and an outlet channel for each said transferreceptacle leading to the arm of the other said transfer receptacle.

4. The pendulum clock as defined in claim 2, including a pivotallymounted drive lever rigidly mounted to said beam, at free endincorporated by said lever, a drive wheel moved stepwise by saidbalance, a cam incorporated by said drive wheel and cooperating withsaid lever free end to free said drive lever to pivot at regular timeintervals that correspond to the time intervals shown by said minuteindicating means.

5. The pendulum clock as defined in claim 4, wherein said beam ispositioned to be acted upon by the liquid furnished to said arms by saidliquid supplying means, whereby the liquid acting on said beam resultsin a torque alternately applied to said drive lever in oppositedirections.

6. The pendulum clock as defined in claim 2, including a pivotallymounted drive lever, a pawl mounted on said drive lever, and whereinsaid minute indicating means is a rotatably mounted disc, and includinga minute hand fixed on said disc to turn therewith, and a series ofregularly spaced pins mounted on said disc near the periphery thereofand cooperating with said pawl to be moved by the latter, when saiddrive lever pivots to turn said disc through a predetermined arc.

7. The pendulum clock as defined in claim 6, wherein said disc istransparent and acts as the cannon pinion, and said pins are dividedinto two groups spaced along respective circles of diiferent diameters,and including an hour wheel coaxially mounted behind said disc free toturn, an hour hand fixed on said hour wheel to turn therewith, and aplurality of means incorporated by said hour wheel and located along acircle of the same radius as that of the smaller of the two circlesdefined by said disc pins, said hour wheel means cooperating with said 6pawl to advance said hour wheel wherever said pawl 00- FOREIGN PATENTSoperates with the disc pin group defining the smaller 379 638 8/1923Germany 1 1 cm 6 References Cited 477,563 6/1929 Germany.

842130 r 55; iTATES PATENTS 58 129 X 5 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, PrimaryExaminer arnaro 1,235,579 8/1917 Lincoln 58-144X Asslstant Exammer1,520,204 12/1924 Opich 582 1,743,231 1/1930 Packard 5829 2,375,5685/1945 McAuliife 5s-2 58129

